Seshadri's Musings

Nowadays there are so many companies in India who offer online classes that cater to your requirements right from class 1 to giving you training till you joint Engineering or Medical!  And they bombard you with so many messages that you are bound to see them and really think that just by attending these courses you stand a very good chance in succeeding to get into these institutions 😊! I had asked my daughter to attend a trial class of one company.  After the class, based on the feedback of my daughter, I had told them that we would not like to continue as my daughter was not interested.  After that, every month I would be getting a call from them asking as to how to proceed further.  Finally, I had to tell them that my daughter is not interested in the field they were teaching in and asking them to delete my name from the future calls.  Touchwood, so far, I have not received any call from them 😊.  You can never tell when this will start again!! I am writing about my experience

Having watched Inspector Morse and Lewis, I had to watch Endeavour.   Inspector Morse started in 1987 and ended in 2000.   Lewis started in 2006 and ended in 2015.   As I have already mentioned, the full name of Morse is Endeavour Morse.   The Endeavour series is set in the 1960’s and 1970’s and depicts Morse’s early days while working as a detective.   The series started in 2012 and is still continuing.   So, for the last 33 years, this detective series is being shown and the reception has been too good! Each episode is of about 1.5 hours and can be taken to be a complete movie in itself, based on runtime alone!  Inspector Morse has 33 episodes and an approximate total runtime of about 50 hours 😊 !  Lewis has also 33 episodes totaling to about a runtime of same 50 hours 😊 .  Endeavour so far has a pilot movie and an episode count of 30 making it a total of about 47 hours.  For the last 50-60 days I have spent about a total of 147 hours (96 movies 😊 ) in seeing all these 3 series

More web-series reviews… Lewis – Another excellent BBC series, which is a continuation of the Morse series.  Now the character Lewis (Kevin Whately)has been promoted to Detective Inspector and solves murder cases with his junior James Hathaway. From Wikipedia… Lewis is a sergeant on the staff of the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England, and in Inspector Morse, is assistant to the eponymous Detective Chief Inspector Morse. Although Lewis's given name is Robert (Robbie), he was rarely referred to as anything but "Sergeant Lewis" or "Lewis." The background and personality of Lewis – a working class, easygoing family man with a Geordie accent – is frequently contrasted with that of Morse – Oxford educated, RP-accented, lifetime bachelor. Morse frequently uses these differences to insult or demean Lewis, perhaps from Morse's point of view in a playful manner, but Lewis is often not amused by the jabs. In his frustration, Lewis is often more in step wi

With the lockdown in place and with knowledgeable people avoiding queues, online grocery purchases are the way forward.  With the goods being delivered right at your doorstep, you don’t have to unnecessarily go outside you home for making grocery purchases.  With so many people crowding in the streets, it is better to avoid them and stay away from risking your health 😊 . I am a member of Metro Cash and Carry and used to visit the outlet once a month for buying all the grocery requirements of my house.  Here you get a variety of stuff and also at a lesser price than what you get at your local kirana shop.  I used to purchase the month’s grocery requirements and used to stuff them in my car’s “dikki”!! Sometimes I used to visit here twice a month in case more grocery was required for the month.  I was also purchasing vegetable from Ryuthu Bazar where the prices were less than anywhere else.   These 2 places were the only ones I was using to get the daily essentials.  With the lockdo

More Web-Series reviews…. First a look at Season 2 of some series… Hostages 2 – This was released in September 2020 and consisted of the same people from the earlier season with some more additions.  This time, the people who took hostages in the first season, are themselves holed up in a building with the police having surrounded them from all sides.  Ok kind of a series.  As usual, in the end, pointing to a 3 rd season.  Depending on this season’s success, they might bring out a next season. Aashram 2 – This was released this month.  In this season, one comes to know the real badness of Bobby Deol!  With his deadpan face, Bobby Deol keeps doing what he wants to do.  The serial gets slow at some places.  Ok kind of a series, but a shade lower than the first season.  There is no definite ending and one has to wait for the 3 rd season to come out. Stranger 2 – The second season of the Korean series.  A gripping series, as entertaining as the first season. In the second season

 More Series reviews…. This week I am writing about a Series that has been running since 1987 😊!   Yes 1987!!.  The series started in 1987 as Inspector Morse and the 6th series ended in 1993.  Then from 1995 to 2000, one episode per year was released.  Mind you, each episode is of around 1 hour and 40 minutes in length, an actual film itself!  So, there were 33 episodes of this series from 1987 to 2000.  In the last episode, the protagonist dies.  In 2018, this series was named the greatest British crime drama of all time by Radio Times readers.  All the stories are set in Oxford, UK. In Inspector Morse, a character named Lewis was the Sergeant to Inspector Morse.  In 2006, Lewis debuted featuring the same Lewis character, now promoted to Inspector.  This ran till 2015 for another 33 episodes.  ITV announced that the show would end after its ninth series, following the decision made by Kevin Whately (Lewis) and Laurence Fox to retire from their roles in the series. Whately anno

More web-series reviews… The Killing – The Killing is an American crime drama television series that premiered in 2011, based on the Danish television series Forbrydelsen (The Crime). The 4th season was commissioned for Netflix and it was the last season. In Seattle, Det. Sarah Linden is on what is supposed to be her last day on the job. She and her son Jack are supposed to leave that evening to join her fiancé in Sonoma. Her replacement, Det. Stephen Holder, is ready to take over but they answer a call from a patrol car who have found a bloodied sweater in a field. When the missing girl, Rosie Larsen, is found in the trunk of a car at the bottom of a lake it turns out the car is registered to the campaign committee for councilman Darren Richmond, who is running for mayor. Linden delays her departure for what she hopes will be only a few days. The first season covers the first two weeks of the investigation of Rosie Larsen and has three main storylines: the police investigation

 More web-series reviews… Unforgotten – Unforgotten is a British crime drama television series, which initially aired in October 2015. The series follows two London detectives, DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar), as they solve cold cases of disappearance and murder. Three series, each consisting of six episodes, have been broadcast in the UK: Series 1 in 2015, Series 2 in 2017 and Series 3 in 2018. Each series deals with a new case, introducing seemingly unconnected characters who are gradually revealed to have some relationship with the victim. As the murder mystery unfolds, the emotional ramifications of the crime are also explored in the lives of those affected. At the start of the series, we see a body is found.  By the end of the 1st episode, we get to know the identity of the body.  By the end of the season, we get to know the killer and the reason for the killing. Definitely worth a watch.  4th series is scheduled to be released in lat

I have already covered the topic of reading in the earlier blogs.  Recently I came across another site which offers books for reading.  Nowadays I read only English books, although I have read many Hindi books and one Tamil book. During childhood, I have read many Hindi thriller novels that used to be quite popular those days.  Even though I can still read and write in Hindi, I don’t read Hindi books now as it is quite time consuming.  Reading Tamil, (I can read and write in Tamil too 😊) , is also quite a tedious affair. I had no other option other than reading a book in Tamil.  I will write in a separate blog about this book.  I listened to the audio of the book for 2 volumes, somehow got the English translations of the next 2 volumes.  The 5th volume, I had to read it in Tamil 😊 , no other option available.  Somehow, I completed it as the story became so engrossing!! My mother is a more voracious reader than me.  I have other hobbies like watching movies and serials, in addition

Now that the IPL is in its last phase, I thought I would pen down some of the thoughts that came to me during this season 😊. Nowadays, there are so many ex-cricketers doing commentary.  For the current generation, who do not know these cricketers background as to how they played when they were active cricketers, it would seem that whatever these commentators spout forth, are golden words.  Almost all of them talk as if they were the superstars of the game and the current lot that is playing don’t know anything about the game.  I will just talk about Gavaskar, his son Rohan and Akash Chopra.  Now Gavaskar is a legend and a well-known cricketer and a great commentator.  But, only, as long as he speaks about the game and its technique.  But sometimes, he goes off a tangent and gets into commenting on the things that he is not supposed to.  Some examples – he unnecessarily entered into a controversy when he waded into Anushka’s playing with Kohli behind Kohli’s initial string of low s

I was the worst guy in following a regime for exercising.  After a couple of days, I will get tired of it (not physically 😊 ) and will stop doing it.  Boredom would creep in and I will rather do something else other that doing the exercises!!  When I met with an accident and my knee broke, I diligently used to do the leg exercises as it was a case of survival of the leg 😊 rather than the need to keep fit.  This also made me drive down all the way to my cousin, Murali’s house to get his cycle exercising bike so that I can properly exercise my legs.  Even then, I had to watch something on TV to ensure that the time spent cycling was also used to distract me from thinking of the boredom of doing the exercise.  After sometime the cycling exercise too became boring and I stopped using the cycle 😊!! Until, my college friend, Sunil (Dukku), told me of a simple way to exercise.  He gave me a YouTube link and told me that this exercise was a good way to ensure the whole body gets exercise

 More web-series reviews… M r Robot – Mr. Robot is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder and clinical depression. Elliot is recruited by an insurrectionary anarchist known as "Mr. Robot", played by Christian Slater, to join a group of hacktivists called "fsociety". The group aims to destroy all debt records by encrypting the financial data of E Corp, the largest conglomerate in the world. Consisting of 4 seasons of 45 episodes, each about an hour long.  Saw only the first season.  Did not find it that interesting.  Later read about the other seasons’ story in Wikipedia 😊. Cracker – Cracker is a British crime drama series.  Set in Manchester, the series follows a criminal psychologist (or "cracker"), Dr Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane, who works with the Greater Manchest

 More web-series reviews… Designated Survivor – In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is a named individual in the presidential line of succession, chosen to stay (at a secure and undisclosed location) away from events such as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. The practice of designating a successor is intended to safeguard continuity in the office of the President in the event the President along with the Vice-President and multiple other officials in the presidential line of succession die in a mass-casualty incident. The procedure originated in the 1950s during the Cold War with its risk of nuclear attack. Designated Survivor is an American political thriller drama television series, that aired for 3 seasons. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Thomas Kirkman, an American politician named as the designated survivor for the State of the Union address, who suddenly ascends from the position of U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban D

Suits – The series was recommended by my college friend, Sunil! Suits is an American legal drama series that ran from 2011 to 2019.  It is not available in both Amazon Prime as well as Netflix.  Suits is set at a fictional New York City law firm and follows talented college dropout Mike Ross, who starts working as a law associate for Harvey Specter despite never having attended law school. The show focuses on Harvey and Mike closing cases, while maintaining Mike's secret. The show also features the characters Louis Litt, Rachel Zane, Donna Paulsen and Jessica Pearson. Synopsis from IMDB… While running from a drug deal gone bad, brilliant young college dropout Mike Ross slips into a job interview with one of New York City's best legal closers, Harvey Specter. Tired of cookie-cutter law-school grads, Harvey takes a gamble by hiring Mike on the spot after recognizing his raw talent and photographic memory. Mike and Harvey are a winning team. Although Mike is a genius, he st

 More web-series reviews…   Indian Matchmaking – Documentary web-series that created a lot of troll memes!!  8 episodes in the first season.  Apparently, the casting was the biggest hurdle of the show, going through a client list of 500 families and calling to see if they were willing to be on camera. The director also mentioned that the series initially started with about a dozen singles but with some that "fell off" during production. The series is about matchmaking in India with a middleman speaking to both the families, matching the horoscope, arranging the meeting between the families and then taking it forward.  As per IMDB, matchmaker Sima Taparia guides clients in the U.S. and India in the arranged marriage process, offering an inside look at the custom in a modern era. An engaging series to know the kind of mindsets people have in looking for a partner.  It is sometimes funny and also gives a peek on the working of minds of the suitors.  One-time watch, just t

 More web-series reviews…   Mafia – It released this year on Zee5.  A gripping series starring Namit Das.   Synopsis from IMDB… S ix friends who were extremely closely knit in their college days reunite for Tanya's bachelor party in Madhupur. However, all six of them are bound by a horrifying incident which had torn them apart for years. The reunion serves to rake up the trauma afresh, turning an idyllic trip into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. The friends embark on a round of Mafia, the popular game which many of us enjoyed playing in our childhood. Instead of serving as a bonding activity, the game brings out the worst in them, fueling each of them to act on their hidden agendas filled with deceit and betrayal. Eight episodes in all, that can be binge watched. Only one season so far.  The story ends in the season and you don’t have to wait for the 2 nd season!  Worth a watch. UnDekhi – Hindi-language crime thriller web television series which premiered on Sony Liv o